Report - Two Seasons With a Torqeedo Outboard

Two Seasons With The Torqeedo

After two full seasons using a 24 VDC Torqeedo electric outboard motor instead of a gasoline fueled outboard, I think that I have a pretty good idea as to the pros and cons.  There are lots of pros and few cons.  Here’s what I have observed……

First of all, I am still very happy with the Torqeedo.  The price difference between the Torqeedo and a Mercury 8hp (the engine the Torqeedo replaced) all things considered is about $700 – with the Torqeedo being more expensive.  My shore power electric bill has gone up about $15 per year.  But, I’m no longer buying marina gasoline at $4+ per gallon… about fifteen gallons each year.  However, I wouldn’t want to mislead anyone.  I’m not counting on paying for the Torqeedo with fuel savings.

Next, the Torqeedo is plenty adequate for ~95% of my needs getting to and from the marina and short excursions under power of fifteen miles or less.  For trips of 8 or 9 miles, I can easily cruise at 4 to 4.5 knots and not use up the full charge.

I do keep the smart charger charging whenever Snickerdoodle is in her slip.  So, I always start out with a full charge in the batteries.

If I really need to get somewhere faster, I can increase speed to ~5 knots for about an hour.  For longer trips though I slow down to between 3.5 and 4 knots to conserve amps.

I love how quiet the Torqeedo is compared to gasoline fueled outboards.  Some of my neighbors have nicknamed Snickerdoodle the “stealth baot.”  And, the light weight of 40 lbs is really nice for raising the motor out of the water… and for taking the motor off the outboard bracket for the boat’s annual winterization.

I only have two concerns regarding the motor.  One is that for a long trip under power – at 3.5 knots the battery charge is pretty well depleted in about 25 nautical miles.  And because of sulfating on the plates in the batteries, the recharge time takes longer than overnight.  Full recharge takes around 20 hours.  This means that if I motor up the lake from Bayview (home base) to Sandpoint (about 30 nm away); I won’t have a full charge the next morning to motor all the way back.  This happened to Kathy and me this past August.  We got about halfway back when the motor quit due to no “juice”……  Fortunately my backup plan to use the two house batteries for backup worked perfectly.  But, I did have to take the house batteries out of their compartment under the starboard settee and move them to the cockpit before connecting them to the Torqeedo.

The other concern that I have is that the motor I bought doesn’t have an easy way to monitor amp usage.  There is a volt meter built into the motor with a nice LED display on the motor’s top… but nothing else.  The new Torqeedo motors have a really nice GPS keyed data screen on the remote throttle.  This display shows amps, amp usage, and distance that can be traveled before draining the battery.  I now use a Klein multi-meter to monitor amp usage… but this is not too convenient AND the Klein doesn’t give any indication as to how far I can go till the battery quits.

All in all, would I buy the Torqeedo again?  Yes.  But, I’d probably spend the extra couple hundred bucks to get the GPS readout on the remote throttle.  I might also consider more critically the 48 VDC motor instead of the 24 VDC.  I’d have to figure out where to put two more 12 volt batteries… but the additional power and speed might be worth it.

Finally, I have had no problems with the motor since it was installed in April 2012 – other than the incident mentioned above on a long trip.  The motor has worked flawlessly with that one exception… And, I can’t really blame the motor since I didn’t know enough about battery use and sulfating prior to the incident.

barnclebillholcomb@gmail.com